ChemSpec is one of the SA paint category’s best kept secrets. Despite them having manufactured high quality automotive, industrial, decorative and performance coatings for 57 years, the company is largely unknown to the public. This is common amongst companies that service industrial sectors, where the business-to-business transactions bypass conventional retail stores.

ChemSpec has at its helm the former managing director of Plascon, Baron Schreuder, to head up the group in its drive to become one of SA’s leading coatings companies.

Schreuder is a coatings industry leader and his sales expertise, experience and reputation in the industry, will be of great value to ChemSpec as it grows in status and size.

‘ChemSpec is a company with massive potential,’ says Schreuder. ‘We are a major paint exporter, with an automotive paint factory in the US and distribution centres in the US, Australia, Namibia and Botswana, all headed up by the experienced marketer Gerard Metzer, formerly Marketing Director of Plascon. ChemSpec is also the largest South-African owned paint company listed on the JSE’s AltX.

‘ChemSpec is passionate about coatings – the locally developed automotive paint brands compete head on with the world’s largest paint companies in developed markets such as the US. This is a company that has innovated with environmentally-friendly water-borne paint for vehicles – an area that stands at the pinnacle
of coatings technologies.’

Schreuder says ChemSpec has a wealth of experience in the woodfinish and industrial arenas, with many products being an excellent fit for home-improvement retail stores. ‘I am confident that with a focused approach, we can deliver exciting, superior quality and better value products to the decorative market in SA,’ he says.

Prominent SA businessman, Ivan Clark proudly sits as chairman of ChemSpec, and sees the future growth of the company coming from a combination of increased international sales, partnerships with leading global companies, a strong drive into African regions as well as a new, exciting move into the SA retail environment.

Underpinning this new decorative retail drive is a solid and growing sales base in the automotive and industrial coatings sectors. As the country’s only exporter of high-tech automotive paint, ChemSpec’s flagship ranges are now sold in over a dozen countries worldwide.

Unlike other SA paint companies that produce auto paints under licence from global companies, ChemSpec has developed its own products from scratch and has enjoyed critical acclaim for the quality and value that these products offer. Metzer says: ‘Our retail partners will benefit from a very focused and solutions-driven approach that allows the retailer, the contractor and the consumer to win. We’re not the first to this category but we’re going to be one of the best.’

Industrial director William Waller, former head of industrial sales at Plascon, is tasked with heading up the same division at ChemSpec as well as the African operations – both important facets of the group’s business mix.

Waller says: ‘ChemSpec’s industrial experience and product reputation bodes well for all decorative products that we develop, as they will comply to the same stringent quality standards. I look forward to the huge opportunity at ChemSpec, asit is extremely well positioned to grow its share in this competitive market.

‘The company has a highly motivated technical sales team and a high-quality product portfolio tailor-made to deliver on our customers’ requirements. As the benchmark company in woodfinish coatings, together with its fit for purpose alkyds, epoxies and polyurethanes, ChemSpec has crafted a full service offering to drive our customers’ businesses into the future.’

ChemSpec aims to grow its decorative paint sales via several channels, with Legendary Retail Brands already playing an important role. In late 2011, Mica took over the responsibility for ChemSpec’s House of Paint stores, to grow its presence while enabling ChemSpec to focus on designing products, building brands and bringing them efficiently to market through a well-tuned supply chain. The supply side of the business is the focus of COO, Bruce Mackinnon.

ChemSpec supplies decorative and speciality products to Mica and Build It stores under their respective housebrand liveries and plans to introduce decorative ranges through other retail groups in the near future.

International headquarters
2 029 Old Mill Road, Canelands, Verulam
KwaZulu-Natal
Tel: +27 (0)32 541 8600
Fax: +27 (0)32 541 8648
www.chemspecpaint.com